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21 Jun 2005 : Column 1024W—continued
School Admissions
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list decisions by the schools adjudicator in respect of published admission numbers where the recommendation of the local education authority has been rejected in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) local education authority and (b) reasons for the decision. [5607]
Jacqui Smith: Adjudicators are independent of the Department for Education and Skills. Details of the decisions they have made are published each year by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator in their Annual Report. Copies, for each year since the office was created in April 1999, have been placed in the House Library. All adjudicator decisions can be read in full on the school adjudicator website at www.schoolsadjudicator.gov.uk
School Building
Mr. Hoban:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what capital funding is available to
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schools for 2006–07; and how much of that funding is accounted for by (a) devolved capital expenditure, (b) Building Schools for the Future funding and (c) specific capital programmes. [4863]
Jacqui Smith: The capital funding currently budgeted for schools for 2006–07 is tabled as follows:
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance her Department has produced for building special schools under the Building Schools for the Future programme. [4911]
Jacqui Smith: We have issued guidance on how to include special schools in the educational vision for an area receiving Building Schools for the Future.
We are also consulting on building and design guidance for special schools, which will apply to Building Schools for the Future and other programmes. This is an update of non-statutory design guidance in the new draft Building Bulletin 77: Designing for Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, which was issued on the website for public consultation between 1 April 2005–24 June 2005.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the cost of building (a) a special school and (b) a mainstream school under the Building Schools for the Future programme. [5419]
Jacqui Smith:
The cost of a school will depend on the number of pupils and their needs which will vary locally in each case. As an example, under Building Schools for the future programme, an estimated cost for an average 900 place mainstream secondary school without a sixth form may be approximately £15 million gross cost and an estimated cost for an average 72 place special school for pupils with severe complex needs may be £7.5 million gross cost. These cost estimates are current and are based on DfES cost data averaged across a range of schools. They include for furniture, fittings ICT and equipment, professional fees, an average location factor and an allowance for abnormal costs e.g for site works. The costs for the mainstream secondary school are based on the agreed basic net cost rates per square metre of £1,224/m 2 . The cost rate used for the special school for pupils with severe and complex needs is the proposed rate of £1,554/m 2 and is subject to the public consultation of the draft improved building standards in
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Building Bulletin 77. These proposed standards and their costs will apply equally to BSF and other school projects. It must be emphasised that costs will vary greatly across the country and will increase substantially in certain locations.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of the sum allocated for school repairs in the last Budget has been spent. [5397]
Jacqui Smith: An additional £650 million was promised in the last Budget in respect of capital work on primary schools, to be allocated in the financial years 2008–09 and 2009–10. This is in support of the Government's aim that half of the primary stock will be rebuilt or refurbished over a 15 year period. Details will be announced in late 2005.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding has been spent on repairs to school buildings in Gloucestershire in each year since 1997. [5193]
Jacqui Smith: Revenue expenditure figures on the maintenance and improvement of schools are likely to vary from year to year depending on the unique circumstances of a particular LEA. For example, revenue expenditure will increase in years where there have been adverse weather conditions (e.g. repairing storm damage) and is also likely to vary with the number and age of the school buildings within the LEA. Revenue expenditure will also be affected by the amounts of capital expenditure employed at a school. Capital spending in Gloucestershire LEA on school buildings has increased from £7.95 million in 1997–98 to £36.78 million in 2004–05.
The information concerning public funding spent on repairing schools in Gloucestershire is contained within the following table:
(50) Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000.
(51) Figures for 1997–98 to 2001–02 cover the repair and maintenance of buildings, fixed plant and grounds which includes all expenditure on non-capital building works, including repairs and maintenance of buildings, and non-capital expenditure on fixed plant and grounds. Figures for 2002–03 and 2003–04 are the combination of the revenue expenditure on building (including fixed plant) maintenance and improvement and grounds maintenance and improvement (CFR categories E12+E13). Any capital expenditure on school buildings is not included in this table.
(52) Figures for 2002–03 onwards will not be directly comparable with the figures for earlier years as figures for 1997–98 to 2001–02 are for all LEA maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools (pre-primary expenditure accounts for £8,500, £15,000 and £138,000 of the respective totals in 1999–2000, 2000–01 and 2001–02) while nursery figures for 2002–03 and 2003–04 are not available and have therefore been excluded for these two years. Also, for some LEAs, expenditure that had previously been attributed to the school sectors was reported within the LEA part of the form in 2002–03 and 2003–04 and would therefore be excluded from the totals for those years although the precise amount of this is not quantifiable from existing sources.
Notes:
1.The blank rows denote the change of source from LEAs' education Revenue Outturn Statements submitted to ODPM to Section 52 Outturn Statements in 1999–2000, and to the review of the Section 52 categories in 2002–03 following the introduction of Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) to schools.
2.The Department is due to collect the figures for 2004–05 in October 2005.
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School Expansion
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to allow successful schools to expand their present capacity. [5402]
Jacqui Smith: We strongly support the expansion of successful and popular schools where they believe they can sustain their quality. We have therefore provided that all schools may publish their own proposals to expand, and introduced a presumption that proposals by successful and popular schools should be approved so that as many parents as possible are able to gain a place for their child at the school of their choice. In addition, successful and popular secondary schools may apply direct to the Department for a contribution to the capital cost of any necessary building work. If the balance of funding is not available from other sources, the Department may fund the full cost, which may be recouped from the local authority.
We have also consulted on proposals to speed up the expansion process for secondary schools, and give them a right of appeal to the Schools Adjudicator if their proposals are rejected by the local School Organisation Committee.
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